New imaging techniques are fuelling an epidemic in diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancers that are unlikely to ever progress to cause symptoms or death, warn experts on bmj.com. New technologies such as ultrasound, CT and MRI scanning can detect thyroid nodules as small as 2mm - many of these small nodules are papillary thyroid cancers. In the US, cases have tripled in the past 30 years - from 3.6 per 100,000 in 1973 to 11.6 per 100,000 in 2009 - making it one of the fastest growing diagnoses. Yet the death rate from papillary thyroid cancer has remained stable...
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